Sunday, 17 January 2010

Shoes fascinate us. In every culture, shoes are more than utility items. We design, display and buy shoes we like. The desire to express our uniqueness through shoes is an ancient urge. Shoes also play an important role in determining social status or telling about our professions and character. Shoes also figure in language, as metaphors as also in dream interpretation.

“Three quarters of the miseries and misunderstandings in the world would finish if people were to put on the shoes of their adversaries and understood their points of view” – Mahatma Gandhi.

In Norse mythology, shoes are crucial. Vidar, the silent God, is the sun of Odin and a symbol of resurrection and renewal. He avenges the death of Odin and kills Fenris wolf with his shoe, which has been made from all the waste pieces of Northern cobblers through all time.

In the ancient Indian epic Ramayana, Bharat asks for the Padukaor shoes of Rama, and installs them on the throne to rule in Rama’s absence.

For Cinderella, the glass slipper affects her transformation from low to high status. A bright engineer has calculated what qualities would the glass in Cinderella's slippers need can be so that it can stand dancing and running. Here's the link.

Plutarch writes about the rites, the king of Delphi had to do yearly to avoid the draughts and famines that plagued Delphi when he threw his slippers at a poor girl, Charilla and killed her.

Long History of Human Footwear

How did humans in the Ice Age (ending about 12 000 years ago) protect their feet from freezing?

Shortly after killing the animal, when the hide was still soft and supple, people placed their foot on the hide and cut out a shape around their foot. Then they wrapped the hide up to their ankle and secured it in place with strips of hide, or thongs.

Good remains of human clothing go back twenty five thousand years. The earliest remaining shoes in the world are probably about 10 000 years old, found in Fort Rock, Oregon, USA.

These excellent shoes were made from natural plant fibres, like the indigenous Yucca plant. Two piece construction of soles and shoe-body made separately came in the Roman era.

The Valmiki Ramayana of India describes how shoes were invented in the 6th millennium B.C. King Jamadagni was practising archery. Renuka, a princess was running to bring the arrows back and got blisters on her feet. The sage Vashishta healed her feet with ointments and told the king to get suitable protection for her. Voila! soles and shoes were invented.

The first Mayflower pilgrims learned how to make animal-hide moccasins from the Amerindians and the colonies began exporting moccasins to England in 1650. America's first factory for mechanized shoe production was established in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1760. An American, Humphrey O’Sullivan, patented the first rubber heel for shoes in 1899. The first rubber soled shoes called plimsollswere developed and manufactured in the United States in the late 1800s though they were developed in Liverpool in the 1830’s.

Shoes Determine Social Rank in Different Cultures

Class distinction by footwear!

In ancient Egypt (a warm climate), slaves went bare feet. Ordinary people wore simple sandals of woven papyrus. Red or yellow sandals and those with pointed toes were only for the royalty or aristocracy.

The Etruscans and later the Romans were very conscious about who wears what on their feet. A senator would always wear matching colour stripes on his toga and shoes (calcei).

European monarchs like Louis XIV or Henry VIII used designer shoes to hide their deformities and these shoes became fashionable.

In the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), only the emperor could wear bright yellow shoes. The nobles could wear shades of golden yellow. The closest common people could get in colour shades were apricot-yellow.

Taking off one’s shoes to show respect is also an ancient tradition in almost all cultures. In Exodus 3,5 Yahweh commands Moses

"Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground."

Hindu and Buddhist scriptures have, since ancient times, warned worshippers to remove their footwear before entering a shrine. Muslim tradition demands even today that shoes be removed before entering a place of worship. Jain pilgrims walk bare feet to avoid killing insects. In the Maori culture of New Zealand, people cannot enter the shrine called Marae wearing shoes. Many Christian religious orders like the Franciscans, Minims, the Capuchins etc choose to be discalced. This usually means wearing only sandals and not shoes.

The ancient Chinese custom of binding women's feet to keep them small arose from a male desire to insure faithfulness. The argument was that with such deformed feet the wife could not travel very far on foot.

Probably the same reason was for the High-heeled platform shoes becoming the rage in Venice in the sixteenth century. Women could walk and climb gondolas in these only if servants helped them.

Some shoes are meant to protect women from hurtfully behaving men. The Aphrodite shoes for sex-workers protect them from violent customers (men).

In almost all countries of the world, you can see shoes with their laces tied together thrown over poles, cables, wires etc. In Los Angeles, it is often seen as a sign of gang turf or that drugs are sold there.

Showing the soles of you shoes is a serious Arab insult. After the first Gulf war, a mosaic of President Bush the Father’s face was laid on the floor of Baghdad's best and biggest Al-Rashid hotel. Everyone had to walk on his face to enter the hotel. In 2003, US soldiers destroyed the mosaic and replaced it with an image of Saddam Hussein.

Shoes can be very dangerous too, as these Americans, President Bush in Iraq and a Neocon found out in Pakistan.

Shoes in Politics

Adlai Stevenson’s (defeated by Kennedy in Democratic party presidential nominations) famous hole in the left shoe, which was worn out due to walking much on campaigns has become a symbol for diligence in campaigning. There is a statue (showing the hole) in Illinois airport.

A shoe played a great part in the first non-ideological alliance between a Christian and a non-Christian empire. When François 1, the renaissance king of France was imprisoned after the battle of Pavia in 1525, by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, the French king's envoy Jean Frangipani carried a letter in the sole of his shoes to France's ally, the Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificient asking for help.

Spies have used shoes very effectively. In the 1960's and 1970's the Soviet KGB used shoe transmitters to hear the conversations they wanted to. By using a maid or other confidant to replace a target's shoes with these bugged ones, they changed the wearers into radio transmitters. Then their clandestine stations would pick up the conversations. However, these could not be used to make phone calls like the secret agent Maxwell Smart did in Get Smart!Even CIA's official site reports Maxwell Smart's shoe phone.

You can buy modern Chinese made Omejo Shoe cameras, which transmit photos to your mobile, here for about 300 US dollars.

There are claims that in the 1950's and 1960's CIA operative tied shoelaces in certain patterns to communicate messages. Here are some examples.

My name is Heather Jones and I am the assistant editor of Epsychologist.org. I am contacting you today in hopes of developing a relationship with your website; we have seen your site and think your content is great. Epsychologist.org offer a free informational resource to both the general and professional public on several issues.

I hope you show some interest in building relationship, please contact me at heather.epsycholosgist.org@gmail.com.

Hi, ur blog is really interesting, While reading it I truly like & enjoy it .I just wanna suggest that u should go for blog advertising & marketing there is a website which is offering very unique features at affordable prices there are expert advertising team who will promote ur blog & affiliate ads through all over the networks.. Finally I have bookmarked ur blog & also shared with my friends hope u have a wonderful day & !!happy blogging!!.

I could tell that we’re on the same interest and obsession. Good to know someone I could share my ideas. Looking forward to know and learn some more from you. I'll be glad to share my own thoughts to you soon. Thank you for sharing such valuable articles. More power!

It is nice to find a site about my interest. My first visit to your site is been a big help. Thank you for the efforts you been putting on making your site such an interesting and informative place to browse through. I'll be visiting your site again to gather some more valuable information. You truly did a good job.

Christian LouboutinAs a way to design and style remarkably one of a kind and effective Christian Louboutin Petal Sandals; they consider benefit of your very last equipment and technologies in order that you’ll be fully capable of get the brightest and designer sandal designs from them in way. Seems wise, the Christian Louboutin Petal Sandals are extremely inimitable and flexible shoes in an attempt to seize your attentions directly. On the subject of the colours, the monumental fascination is that they use superlative colors for making fancy your Christian Louboutin Petal Sandals.

I do consider all the ideas you have introduced to your post. They are very convincing and can definitely work. Still, the posts are too short for novices. Could you please prolong them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post. starting up a business